82 Portraits and 1 Still-life
In July 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life opens at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The show marks the culmination of the series on which Hockney began working in 2013. The single still-life in the exhibition, of fruit and vegetables on a bright [NESTED]blue bench, was painted when one of the sitters cancelled at the last minute—a testament to Hockney’s enduring sense of humor.
A History of Pictures
In October, a new book by David Hockney and Martin Gayford is released: A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen. The conversational format of the book explores Hockney’s ongoing fascination with the optical [NESTED]devices artists have used over the ages as well as his personal philosophy of picture-making or depiction.
What makes a work of art? I don’t know .... I’d prefer to say I’m making pictures—depictions. We’ve had a great many histories of art, what we need now is a history of pictures.
Pictures will go on changing, as they always have in the past. In the twenty-third century they won’t look back at twenty-first-century television, and think: Well, this was reality, as it looked then! They’ll regard it as some old-fashioned method of depiction .... One thing that is not going to be destroyed, though, is drawing. There are many handmade images in the digital world. For example, video games are drawn pictures. And a lot of them are rather good, actually. Now you can live in a virtual world if you want to, and perhaps that’s where most people are going to finish up—in a world of pictures.
Australia
David Hockney: Current opens in November at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. This marks the second presentation of 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life—Hockney considers the installation a single work of art. Bigger Trees near Warter or/ou Peinture sur le motif pour le Nouvel Age Post-Photographie 2007 is shown in a gallery with full-scale digital reproductions of the painting on each of the other three walls, providing a total surround experience. The large exhibition also includes multi-camera movies, iPhone and iPad drawings, and photographic drawings printed on paper.
Sumo
Later in the year, Taschen publishes a sumo-sized survey of more than 60 years of Hockney’s work curated by the artist himself. It truly is A Bigger Book at 27 1/2 by 19 5/8 [NESTED]inches, and weighing in at 78 pounds; it includes reproductions of more than 450 works of art over 498 pages. Accompanying it is a separate, 680-page illustrated chronology.
Exhibitions
Solo
- The Yosemite Suite, Pace, New York, NY, USA (Apr 28–Jun 18), travels to Annely Juda Fine Art (Jun 28–Aug 19); L.A. Louver, Venice, CA (Jul 13–Oct 1); and Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo (Oct 1–Nov 26); catalogue.
- The Yosemite Suite, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK (Jun 28–Aug 19).
- David Hockney: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (Jul 2–Oct 2); catalogue.
- The Yosemite Suite, L.A. Louver, Venice, CA, USA (Jul 13–Oct 1).
- The Yosemite Suite, Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (Oct 1–Nov 26).
- David Hockney: Current, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (Nov 11, 2016–Mar 13, 2017); catalogue.
Group
- The Serial Impulse at Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA (Sep 11, 2016–Jan 2, 2017).
- Magical Designs for Mozart's "Magic Flute", Kent State University Museum, Kent, OH, USA (Sep 29, 2016–Jan 8, 2017).
- Nude: Masterpieces from Tate, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (Nov 5, 2016–Feb 5, 2017), travels to Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand (Mar 18–Jul 16, 2017); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (Aug 11, 2017–Feb 4, 2018); Yokohama Museum of Art (Mar 24–Jun 24, 2018); catalogue.
Publications
Publications
- David Hockney Prints, Tokyo Shimbun Cultural Affairs Department, Tokyo.
- David Hockney: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-Life, Royal Academy of Arts, London.
- David Hockney: Current, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
- David Hockney: The Yosemite Suite, Pace Gallery, New York.
- David Hockney A Bigger Book Sumo, Taschen, Koln.
- A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney, by Martin Gayford, London: Thames & Hudson.
- David Hockney–A Bigger Book: Chronology, edited by David Hockney, Köln: Taschen.
- A History of Pictures, by David Hockney and Martin Gayford, New York: Abrams.